Video: Author writes about bad girls’ in history

Tuesday

Mar 31, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 31, 2009 at 10:41 AM

For her first novel, Alisa M. Libby detailed the life of a countess who bathed in the blood of virgins to stay youthful. For her second novel, “The King’s Rose,” Libby looks at a “bad girl” of a different sort: Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, who was beheaded for adultery.

Maureen Boyle

For her first novel, Alisa M. Libby detailed the life of a countess who bathed in the blood of virgins to stay youthful.

“I’m always drawn to girls in history who do things wrong, who do bad things,” Libby said. “I find these characters really complex and interesting.”

For her second novel, “The King’s Rose,” Libby looks at a “bad girl” of a different sort: Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, who was beheaded for adultery.

“I like to say it is almost like a Cinderella story if it wasn’t so terrifying,” Libby said.

Libby said she came across the story of Catherine Howard – one of the infamous English monarch’s six wives – while looking for ideas for a second historical novel. She was intrigued by the teenager’s ill-fated life.

“She is a bit of the lesser-known queens,” Libby said. “She didn’t change history very much, but the story itself is interesting.”

Catherine was just 14 when she arrived at court and still a teen when she became Henry VIII’s fifth wife. Within 18 months of her marriage, however, she was arrested for treasonous adultery and later executed for having an affair with a groomsman.

“Catherine has a very fast rise to fame and a fast downfall,” Libby said.

“The King’s Rose,” released by Dutton this month, is considered young adult fiction — much like her first novel, “The Blood Confession.”

Libby researched what people wore and how they lived during the time of Henry VIII. While riding the commuter train to work, she listened to the music popular in the king’s time and jotted ideas in a small notebook. She even went to England to see the places where Catherine lived and visited the Tower of London, where she died.

“I wanted to kind of figure out why she did what she did and what she was thinking,” Libby said.

She end up with piles of notes and a first draft of a book that was nearly 500 pages long. Her editor looked at the book and made a key suggestion: cut down the novel’s first section.

“I cut the first 190 pages and started completely over from page 191. It was painful, but less painful, because I knew it was the right thing to do,” she said.

Libby grew up in Natick with dreams of becoming an author. “It is almost a compulsion,” she said. “I always had the urge to tell stories. I wrote a lot of very bad poetry for a while.”

She began penning her first novel, “The Blood Confession,” while a student at Emerson College.

“Blood Confession” is the fictionalized account of a Hungarian countess, Erzebet Bizecka, who kills virgins, then bathes in their blood. It is loosely based on the legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who lived in the 16th century.

“I probably worked on it for eight years,” Libby said.

In 2006, Libby and her husband moved to Brockton, where she writes in a small office in the rear of their single-family home.

“We wanted somewhere that was still commutable to the city, something which was affordable,” said Libby, who also works as a communications assistant at Simmons College, in the graduate school of library and information sciences.

Libby is now making appearances at public libraries and bookstores across the state to sign and promote her newest novel. “I’m going to be very busy,” she said.

Reach Maureen Boyle at mboyle@enterprisenews.com.

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